Will the ECU automatically adjust
 

ok i was just thinking to myself that when i put my new ported and pollished head on my MP3 with the j-spec camshafts, will the ECU adjust for the extra air intake. will my car run like crap? Rich or lean on fuel. If it is going to be crapy unless i fix something what is it i need to fix or adjust????? thank you :)

bump me on up the chain.

Yes and no. At part throttle, the car will try to automatically adjust the mixture but will turn on the MIL if it thinks the sensor readings are too out of whack (which is possible in your situation depending on the extent of the head work). However, at full throttle the ECU ignores the sensors and runs the timing and mixture according to preset maps (this is known as "open loop" mode). Therefore, you can't adjust the timing and mixture at full throttle with the stock ECU.

The good news is that the preset full-throttle timing maps are fairly conservative and the fuel maps are kinda rich, meaning that it's unlikely that the engine will self-destruct, and a rich mixture with stock airflow often equates to a more stoich mixture with improved airflow. The bad news is that because the ECU won't self-adjust, the car won't put out as much power as it really should. This is particularly true of the ignition timing; with heavy-duty N/A mods, you typically need more ignition advance, and the stock ECU maps don't really advance the timing enough for a *stock* engine.

To adjust the timing and fuel, you need (a) an entire aftermarket ECU or (b) a piggyback ECU capable of truly overriding the stock ECU; I've heard good things about the Unichip, but the cheap sensor-override systems like a Jet won't do squat.

Good luck! :D

unichip whats that? how much is it running for do you have a website or anything?

This is about Porsches, but I think it should give a general idea about the UniChip. I just ran a search on Google.com and found this:

http://www.theracersgroup.com/theprogram_unichip.html

Hope this helps.

You seem to know your shit about this, so what about the E-Manage? You probably remember Traveler who was using one but went AWOL before he told the forum how things went with it. I know very little about ECU tuning and am trying to better understand more about them.

Ditto, i want to get my car tuned right so i can have full advantage of my 1500.00 dollar head work :)

not trying to be a dick, but you guys should really just do a search. theres been tons of info on what the differences between the different systems available for our car. greddy emanage, haltech e6k, tec2, tec3, ecu, and piggyback would probably all turn up a great amount of information on the topic.

Indeed you get of pages on info on these ECU upgrades, but the only dude that I can remember almost installed it, had to sell it becuase of his wife...So I was just wondering if this system is capable of overriding the stock ECU on a Protege. I know on "most" cars they are capable of it, just wanted to verify it for our cars...

yea that guy was traveler, he left our board before ever installing it unfortunately. there are other ppl here with haltech on their cars tho.

yeah i would love to hear anyones thoughts on any of these that have one installed.

I can't imagine going full standalone for these cars! You guys are crazy! :) What kind of numbers are the standalone guys achieving without forced induction?